This time, chalk up a victory for Tony Romo over Eli Manning

The Cowboys waited all year for another shot at the New York Giants. When they got it in the 2012 season opener, they were ready, winning 24-17 on Wednesday night in a game that wasn't really that close. AP video. (Sept. 6)

All of which might someday land the Giants' offensive leader in the Hall of Fame. But as the team experienced the hard way Wednesday night, every season is a new one and sometimes ghosts of playoff runs past come back to haunt you.

So there was Romo at MetLife Stadium for the gala NFL opener, and darned if he was not the best quarterback on the field, at least for one frustrating regular-season night.

"He played well,'' Manning said of his counterpart, who often ran away from a Giants pass rush that has bedeviled him in recent games to make big plays, and baffled the Giants on a series of backbreaking slant routes.

"He's a great competitor and a good quarterback and he made some great throws, buying time, running around, so he played well enough to win the game.''

No one in blue was in a panic over how the team or its starting quarterback performed as it became the first Super Bowl champ to lose in one of these weeknight, season-opening NFL specials.

Manning has built up far much goodwill for such concerns at this stage. But if Romo keeps this up, even with a vintage season Manning and his teammates might have a divisional opponent to contend with deep into autumn.

And perhaps winter.

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